School funding punted to New Year after mayor threatens veto

Everyone loves kids and schools, but the Board of Supervisors and Mayor Ed Lee aren’t exactly seeing eye to eye over a proposed midyear infusion of city cash to help make sure about 1,900 San Francisco juniors can graduate in 2014.

Legislation to give the school district $2.2 million in city money passed the board 7-4 on Dec. 11, but its sponsor, Supervisor Jane Kim, opted to push off the second vote until mid-January, after Lee reportedly threatened to veto part of the spending bill. Kim is hoping she’ll be able to get to a veto-proof, eight-vote majority next year when her former school board colleague, Norman Yee, replaces outgoing Supervisor Sean Elsbernd. Elsbernd voted against the bill, but Yee said last week that he will support it.

At issue is $840,000 of the money, which Kim has proposed getting from the city’s $15 million reserve. The board’s more moderate members, along with the mayor, don’t think the city should be dipping into its reserve funds, given the budget uncertainty at the state and federal levels, and the projected city deficit next fiscal year. (Everyone agrees on the other $1.4 million, which is coming from an existing, voter-created school fund that brought in more money than expected this year)

Lee said he met with Kim and the school district last week and told them “right now I am not about to put more pressure on our general fund when I just released a budget,” projection that asks city departments to cut spending.

“At this time, the school district does have the funding to do what they want to do,” Lee said. “And we’re going to continue working with the school district and the school board to present them with more options than they even see today.”

Kim agreed that the consensus from that meeting was that everyone needed more time. She said since the $1.4 million is guaranteed, the school district is moving forward to schedule the the after-school classes and other programs that are necessary to help the students get back on track.

“Everyone would like to see it get fully funded, and there’s not agreement on the funding source,” she said.

It’s not clear there will ever be consensus, though.

“The word I heard was that it was delayed to prevent a line item veto,” said Supervisor John Avalos, who supports Kim’s proposal.

He also noted that if the board had passed the legislation last week and Lee had vetoed any portion of it, the board would only have had 10 days to overturn the mayor’s decision — and they are currently on break until Jan. 8.